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Bomb threats at polling places in several swing states | News, Sports, Jobs
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Bomb threats at polling places in several swing states | News, Sports, Jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) — A mostly smooth national election day was marred in several battleground states Tuesday by a series of bomb threats and unsubstantiated claims of wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump.

Bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania turned out to be hoaxes, but forced evacuations and some polling stations to extend hours.

Threats were reported throughout the day at polling places in three metropolitan Atlanta counties, all with large numbers of Democratic voters, and into the evening at polling places and election offices where ballots were counted in Pennsylvania. Bomb threats were also reported at three polling places in Navajo County, Arizona, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at an evening press conference that the pranks pose no danger to the public or the election. “Every legal, eligible vote shall be counted and counted accurately, and the will of the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shall be respected.” said Shapiro, a Democrat.

Neither Shapiro nor the Pennsylvania State Police provided details about who might be behind the pranks or why Shapiro believed there was no threat to the public.

In Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, 32 of 177 polling places received bomb threats and five were briefly evacuated. Polling stations were able to reopen after the threats.

“That just shows you the resilience of our system and our people. We are battle tested” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican.

The FBI said Tuesday afternoon that many of the fake bomb threats in several states appear to be coming from Russian email domains.

The dramatic and worrisome end to Election Day came after a highly successful early voting period, when at least half of the expected votes in the presidential election were cast. By Tuesday, more than 84 million Americans had already voted.

Overall, Tuesday’s final day of voting was characterized by the same kind of routine hiccups and frustrations seen in other elections: A poll worker forgot to bring a key; printing errors of the ballot papers; The vote counting machines are not working.

The vast majority of problems were “highly anticipated, routine and planned events” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Despite there being no evidence of widespread voting problems, Trump made unsubstantiated claims about Philadelphia and Detroit and raised questions about election operations in Milwaukee, the largest cities in three states that will be crucial to decide the presidency.

Local officials quickly pushed back on the claims Trump made on his social media platform, saying there was no indication of a problem affecting the accuracy of the vote count.

The absence of any significant issues hasn’t stopped Trump, the Republican nominee or the Republican National Committee, from making numerous claims of election fraud or interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.

In Georgia, a federal judge rejected ca “frivolous” a last-minute effort by Republicans to challenge the collection of mail-in ballots by election offices in Atlanta last weekend — after early voting had ended. U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker, a Trump appointee, echoed the GOP’s argument “does not stand up to even the most basic level of legal review and reading comprehension.”

Trump suggested on Tuesday that he won’t challenge the election results — as long as they’re fair.

“If it’s a fair choice, I’d be the first to admit it” results, Trump said, although what meets that definition was not clear.

The former president began making unsubstantiated claims about voting, ballot counting and law enforcement as voting on Election Day drew to a close.

He said on his social media platform that there was “Talk about massive fraud in Philadelphia” and said law enforcement is on the way. He did not elaborate and there was no immediate indication of what he was referring to. Spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment on what he meant.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement dismissing Trump’s claims as baseless.

“There is no factual basis within law enforcement to support this wild allegation,” Krasner said. “If Donald J. Trump has facts to back up his wild accusations, we want them now. Right now. We’re not holding our breath.”

Federal election security officials and Shapiro also said they saw nothing to support Trump’s claims. Officer Miguel Torres of the Philadelphia Police Department said he was not aware of any special deployment of law enforcement or “any kind of incident” that would ask.

One of Philadelphia’s three board members, Seth Bluestein, a Republican, said on social media that Trump’s comment “It’s yet another example of misinformation.” At an evening press conference, he emphasized the safety of the city’s vote: “There is no evidence of massive fraud,” he said.

Detroit police were equally baffled by another Trump post that read: “Philadelphia and Detroit! Heavy law enforcement is there!” Detroit police said there were no reported problems inside or outside Huntington Place, the massive convention hall where election workers were to count ballots.

Evening traffic outside the center was light with no protesters in sight. There were barricades outside the room and the escalators to and from the area were closed. Police also reported no major problem in the city’s more than 400 polling stations.

In Milwaukee, election officials said they counted more than 30,000 mail-in ballots “out of an abundance of caution” after it was discovered that the doors on the back of the ballot scanners were not properly sealed. The effort, which drew attention from Trump and the RNC, was expected to delay the count there.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson went to the central counting site in Milwaukee with the chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin to observe the recount and said it didn’t look like the city was ready for an election. Less than two months before Election Day, the Milwaukee elections office drew praise from Republicans who oversee the state’s elections, who expressed confidence that it was ready.

Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactics of casting doubt on the election. She was spending Tuesday afternoon casting her own vote at a phone bank hosted by the Democratic National Committee, and said phone banking is “the best of what we are.”

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